The total U.K. retail seafood market declined 0.7 percent in volume but increased by 4.2 percent in value for the 52 weeks ending 8 December 2012, according to Nielsen Market Data supplied by Seafood Scotland.The data represents seafood sales from all major U.K. retailers.
While the overall market fell, fresh seafood grew 4.8 percent in volume and 6.1 percent in value.
The top five selling fresh seafood species by volume represent 52 percent of all the fresh fish sold at U.K. retail markets.
The top five species are:
Salmon: with a 24 percent market share, volume was up significantly by 17 percent, but value tracked behind at 11.8 percent. This points to an increase in the harvest, resulting in lower prices being achieved.
Haddock: with a market share of 8 percent, value was up 9.3 percent and volume up by 6.9 percent
Cod: with a market share of 7 percent, it did not perform as well as haddock, with volume up 6.5 percent and value down 3.6 percent
Mackerel: with a market share of 7 percent, volume remained depressed, down 8.7 percent, but value was up by 2.3 percent
Warm water prawns: with a market share of 6 percent, volume continued it’s decline at 3.7 percent, and value remained static, up 0.7 percent. Coldwater prawns declined 11.2 percent in volume and was also down in value
Additional fresh fish species with considerably less sales volume but that showed significant growth include Pollock, hake, whiting, squid, bassa, sole monkfish, smoked salmon, plaice and trout.
As for individual retailers’ performance, Aldi and Lidl performance well in both the fresh and frozen categories.
Aldi had an overall seafood market share of 3.5 percent, up 52.1 percent from the pervious year, with frozen seafood up 65.7 percent and fresh seafood share up 33.3 percent.
Lidl has a 2.6 percent overall seafood market share, with frozen seafood up 15.1 percent and fresh up 27.2 percent.
Despite dropping 4.3 percent, Tesco retained the largest seafood market share at 25.9 percent.
